Justice Department Cited Over Epa Files

December 6, 1985|United Press International

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee Thursday released a 1,200-page report accusing former Justice Department lawyers of misconduct in the withholding of EPA files from Congress in 1983 and urged appointment of a special counsel to consider prosecutions.

The panel voted 22-13, largely along party lines, to release the report on the secret, 2 1/2-year staff investigation - which the report alleges was itself impeded by the Justice Department as recently as this year.

It then voted to ask Attorney General Edwin Meese to seek appointment of a Watergate-style independent counsel to review the allegations -- including charges former top Justice Department officials and deputy White House counsel Richard Hauser misled House committees and a federal judge.

The report also raises questions whether former Attorney General William French Smith and Deputy Attorney General Edward Schmults sought to block the Judiciary inquiry. It details evidence of a possible smear campaign by other department officials against two key congressmen.

The White House declined immediate comment.

The report says that in urging the files be withheld, Justice Department officials apparently were aware they contained evidence of wrongdoing. In the controversy that followed eventual release of the files in a settlement in March 1983, 22 EPA officials left office amid allegations of political manipulation of toxic waste cleanups, conflicts of interest and sweetheart deals with industry.